The Jedi Way 01: Finding Their Way
by princess-sunshine2003
Summary: Kadi is a Jedi in hiding; Verim is an angel Jedi protector; Jacen Solo is a young Jedi Knight. Their destinies are linked.


Title: Finding Their Way  
  
Author: Fire Princess; padawanprincess@hotmail.com  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Setting: Post NJO (Post RotJ)  
  
Category: Romance  
  
Summary: Kadi is a Jedi in hiding, an Oracle from the Jedi ranks of the Old Republic, missed by the endless scouring of the galaxy. Verim is an angel, sworn to protect the woman he fell in love with from all the demons that hunt her. Jacen Solo is a young Jedi Knight, searching for any Jedi left from the Old Republic. Their destinies are linked.  
  
Status: Complete  
  
Disclaimer: George Lucas created Star Wars (duh.) I didn't do anything but create some extra characters. It's not like I'm making money, and I swear no copyright infringement was intended.  
  
Jedi. For a thousand or more generations before the Republic fell, they guarded peace in a universe that desired it more than anything. Certain values were held, certain rules were obeyed. Life was hard for the Jedi, even in peaceful times. Then the wars came. First, it was the Clone Wars, in which the Jedi fought and died for the citizens they protected. After that, the Jedi Purges, in which Darth Vader, a young Jedi traitor hunted and killed his former colleagues and friends until there were only a few left. As the Dark Times reached their peak, the Galactic War began. The Rebel Alliance, headed by a brave young Princess, daughter of the traitor Jedi. The war for the galaxy drew to a close when young Luke Skywalker defeated both the galactic Emperor and his own father, Vader. Then, after twenty years of peace, they came, intent on destroying the galaxy and all the slowly rebuilding Jedi Order had fought to keep safe.  
  
The Yuuzhan Vong, an alien race like nothing ever encountered before. They tore through the galaxy like one tears through a chunk of meat, eating everything in their path. They focused their campaign of destruction on the Jedi, their biggest threat to success. But out of all the chaos, there arose a great cry of joy. For a chosen one had been found.  
  
Jacen Solo ran a hand through his short brown hair and glanced back at his sister. Jaina grinned wickedly at him and motioned him to go on. He sighed in exasperation and looked once more at the forbidding building in front of him that bore only a simple sign: "We'll Find Them." He took a deep breath and pushed through the door. He still thought it was a waste of time, looking for someone who had been a Jedi before his mother was even born.  
  
There was a large desk facing the door, and only one being sitting behind it. She was a rather attractive humanoid female, with honey colored hair and eyes to match. She looked up and smiled, revealing an enchanting dimple in one cheek. "Can I help you?" she asked in slightly accented Basic. Her skin was a creamy mixture of milk and coffee, and he found himself smiling back.  
  
"Um, I don't know. I hope so. I'm looking to find someone who disappeared about forty years ago?"  
  
"All right. That narrows it down to about six trillion. Anything else? A name would help." Jacen was surprised to find that she was teasing him. He grinned.  
  
"As a matter of fact, I do have a name. Kadirra Ram-ni." He was surprised when her face went dead white. She blinked at him and looked as if she were fighting off a swoon. "Are you all right, miss?" he asked, feeling like a fool for not even knowing her name. He grabbed her arm as she tottered in her seat. "Are you all right?!" She looked up at him stupidly and blinked again. Her eyes cleared.  
  
"How do you know her?"  
  
"My uncle found some old records from the original Jedi Temple. He has been investigating every name on that list for almost three years now, trying to find any surviving Jedi. So far, it has come to naught. We were told by a contact that this was the place to try for those ones that no one seemed to know about." Her face was coloring again slowly. She attempted a weak smile that failed miserably.  
  
"Yes, well. It may take a few days, but if she is still alive, she will be located." Jacen noted the way she was suddenly very formal and polite. He stowed that information in the back of his head for the moment. She nodded to him. "Do you have any other information about the subject?" she asked. She pulled out a blank datapad and keyed in the name, then looked up at him.  
  
"I have the records right here," he said, pulling the flimsiplast out of his pocket, and handing it over the counter to her. She looked it over and copied the information onto her pad, the she handed it back to him.  
  
"If you'll come back in three days, I can have some information for you then." She was clearly dismissing him, but, for some reason, he didn't want to leave. She looked up at him again, and smiled. "Was there something else?" He flushed, suddenly uncomfortable with her smile.  
  
"No. Thank you. I'll be back in three days." Still reluctant to leave, and yet, not wanting to stay, he forced himself to walk out to his waiting sister. No sooner had he let the door close behind him than he heard the scream from inside. The door, however, was locked. He couldn't get back in.  
  
* * * * * *  
  
"Merry!!!" she screamed, shooting to her feet so fast, her chair tipped over backwards. She pressed the automatic lock on the door. "Merry!" A short woman ran into the office, her hair escaping from the bun that was meant to contain it.  
  
"Kadi, what is it?" The woman, Merry, appeared much older than Kadi, with hair that had gone silver many years before. She wore a modified two-piece flight suit and had a blaster holstered at her hip. Kadirra Ram-ni, for that was her name, ran a hand through her honey-hued hair, eyes wild. Merry grabbed her arms and shook her. "Kadirra! What is wrong with you!?"  
  
Eyes glazed, she handed the datapad to Merry. She picked up the chair and sank into it once more. "I've been discovered. Palpatine and Vader missed some of the records. Apparently, a new Jedi Order has searched out anything they can find about the old, and my name came up." She sighed and rubbed her head. "I wonder if they've found Master Yaddle. Or..." she broke off. No, she didn't want to think about any of the friends she'd had once upon a time.  
  
"I'm sure you'd feel it if he was dead, Kadi," Merry said, handing the pad back. "You said he was your year-mate when you were in training. Wouldn't he be old now, like me?"  
  
"No, Merry. He was an angel. Angelic lifespan is about the same as my own people's. They live for hundreds of years. Master Yoda and Master Yaddle were the same." She sighed again. "If I wanted to be found, I would have revealed myself when the Emperor was killed."  
  
Merry smiled. "You saw it. You saw this was going to happen, that the New Republic was going to fall. You didn't want to be hunted again."  
  
"I'm the last of my kind, Merry. My best friend was an angel, the only Jedi ever to come from his people. Oracles were dead, and many of us had been Jedi. I don't want to be the end. I can't be. That is why I didn't want to be found. Never in my life have I lied, in following with the Jedi Code. But... how do I keep myself hidden without lying to young Jacen Solo? That is my dilemma." She sat and stowed the datapad in a drawer of the desk. Releasing the door locks, she propped her feet back up on the top and leaned back in the chair.  
  
"You have the feast tonight at the governor's palace, Kadi. Don't you need to prepare for that?"  
  
"No. I'm not going this time. I am not a trifle, and I am not going to marry any of his sons. There is no other point in going."  
  
"You can't not go!" Merry laughed. "How could you not like to go to the governor's parties?"  
  
"Fine, love. You go, and good luck. Tell Mirev I got sick or something."  
  
"Who's sick?" asked a low, deeply masculine voice from the doorway. Kadi's feet came off the desk and she sat up straight in her chair.  
  
"Mirev!" she said, surprised. She stood and smiled. "What are you doing here?"  
  
"I just came to see if you were all right? I know you don't like my father's parties. You never did like parties, even when... you first arrived." He mentally crossed his fingers that she didn't notice his slip-up, but not really hoping. His surprise was complete when she didn't pick up on it.  
  
"I'm fine. I just..."  
  
"You look like you've been visited by a ghost." He suddenly realized that that might actually be the case. "You haven't, have you?" He stepped forward, but refrained from touching her.  
  
"No, I've just been asked to find one," she replied. She shook her head and her hair tumbled from its tail to fall about her shoulders. He smiled and swallowed, remembering the time, more than fifty years before, when she'd done the exact same thing and he'd felt his heart leap to his throat. He felt the same thing happen now and he wished he could tell her who he was.  
  
"What do you mean, Kadi?" he asked.  
  
"I've been asked to find a lost Jedi. That's all."  
  
He felt a moment of sudden panic. Had someone found out he was still alive? "Would... how many can still be alive after the Great Purge?" he asked shakily.  
  
"Jacen Solo said they had found a list with the old records of Jedi on them. Kadirra Ram-ni is the name he gave me." Kadi smiled. "I don't know what to tell him. I gave myself three days, but..." She smiled, noting the look of panic on his face. "Mirev..."  
  
"Kadi, I think we should talk, after tonight. After the party, I mean."  
  
"We can talk now. I have too much work to do tonight." Mirev looked ready to argue, but instead, he sighed and nodded.  
  
"Mistress Merry, could you excuse us?"  
  
"Of course, boy." The older woman trotted off and closed the door behind her. Kadi turned to him and smiled her heart- warming smile.  
  
"So, what is it that we need to talk about?"  
  
"Well, Kadi...If the new-age Jedi came looking for you, they might come looking for me."  
  
"What are you- You know I'm Kadirra Ram-ni," she finished flatly. "How?"  
  
"We trained together, my dear friend."  
  
"By the Emperor's twisted black bones!" she whispered. Her face had gone white. "Verim?!" He didn't even have to nod. She knew. He dropped his façade and her heart twisted. "I thought you were dead. I didn't feel your spark die, but it diminished, and I could no longer sense it."  
  
"I hid it. Remember Vergere?" The door slid open and three people entered. One was Jacen Solo. There was a sandy-haired man in his mid-forties, and a red-haired beauty with sparkling green eyes. Kadi shot to her feet and slid into a guarded stance.  
  
"Get out," she said, addressing her words at the redhead. The three stopped their approach.  
  
"We came to ask-"  
  
"Get out, Mara Jade," Kadi repeated. The redhead's eyes widened and she tilted her head to the side.  
  
"I don't know you... do I?"  
  
"You killed my Master. Get OUT!" Kadi's temper surged and the woman flew backwards, out the door.  
  
"Get a grip on yourself!" Verim hissed. He slipped something into her hand and she nearly dropped it.  
  
"How did you find this? I thought it lost in the Temple; destroyed with all the records." He smiled at her and their eyes communicated more than any words or even thoughts. "Thank you." The silver cylinder fit into her hand quite nicely. She directed her attention to Jacen. "Who are you really that you come looking for the Jedi of the Old Republic?"  
  
The other man spoke instead. He had gone outside and brought Mara back in. "I am Luke Skywalker. I have to ask you not to do that again."  
  
"Skywalker?" Verim spit out. "You have no business here either. No more than the Emperor's Hand."  
  
"What is it you have against us?" Jacen asked, keeping himself calm.  
  
"A Skywalker destroyed our kind. As a whole, the Jedi Order was connected in mind and spirit. I felt every death dealt by her and...and Anakin. Dear little Anakin, that made me laugh so with his droids. He turned on us. Killed us. No relative of his is welcome here. Mara Jade killed my Master. I am being kind, letting you live. Now get out, all of you." Kadi lit her blade and grinned as the golden light filled the room. "I owe you my life for this, my friend," she whispered as they departed. The door slid shut.  
  
"Your renewed friendship will be enough," he managed as her eyes bored into him. She smiled and his heart flipped over. "You don't think you were too harsh with them?"  
  
"Harsh? I was trying to keep my feet under me. Mara Jade? What is an Emperor's hand doing with the son of Solo?"  
  
"I hear she married Anakin's son, after trying to kill him. He did kill the Emperor, you know."  
  
"Sidious was a plague, Verim. Our respective kinds have seen many plagues."  
  
"I know my people's history, as do you. We survived the Sith Uprising by combining the powers of our nations."  
  
"Oracle and angel. What I would give to see that again..." She looked at him. "Such a long time ago. Our people... we complemented each other."  
  
"It was your mother, after all, who insisted on marrying one of her own, instead of the king's son, as was arranged," he teased.  
  
"I think that turned out for the best. After all, I wouldn't have been a Jedi if my mother had married your father. You know as well as I that they would only have been permitted one child. I am the youngest of twenty."  
  
"And I the second eldest of... several."  
  
"Do you miss it? Your home planet, I mean?"  
  
She sat and leaned back in her chair. His eyes were drawn to her legs. She had always been able to jump higher than him. Her legs were beautiful. The rest of her was even moreso. "Sometimes."  
  
"I missed you," she said. "I wept for you. Many times." She stared at his mouth, longing to kiss him.  
  
"I always watched for you. When you came here..."  
  
"What?" she asked. He slid to his knees next to her chair. Her head was only slightly higher than his. She stared at his mouth harder, willing herself not to look at his eyes.  
  
"Why do you stare so, Kadi?" he asked, noticing what she wished he hadn't.  
  
"I just..." She stopped and licked her suddenly dry lips. "All this time, you've been right here! With me all along, and I never knew." She suddenly realized she was a little frustrated by that fact. She took a calming breath and accepted the anger, releasing it from her body. She visibly relaxed. Her next deep breath was stolen by a gasp when he placed a warm hand on her thigh.  
  
"I wanted to tell you, but I didn't want you to be found. I didn't want you to be found."  
  
"You said that twice."  
  
"What?"  
  
"That you didn't want me to be found."  
  
"Did I?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Why do you refuse to marry any of the governor's sons?" he asked impishly, changing the subject on her. She blinked and then smiled.  
  
"Marriage is not the Jedi way. Marriage is...what drove Anakin to the dark side. You know that. When Amidala died, Anakin lost his mind, as well as his capacity for caring. Can a person truly be so emotionally part of someone else that they lose all sense and caring for self if the other half is gone?"  
  
"I..."  
  
"The answer is yes," she interrupted softly. "When I thought you were dead, I was ready to...I don't know, exactly. Merry stopped me. She pulled me free of that life. She led me back to the light and held me steady while I tried to recover. I can't lose you again," she said, gripping his wrist. He brushed a loose strand of her hair back from her face.  
  
"I love you, Kadirra Ram-ni."  
  
"I love you, Verim. I always will." 


End file.
